In the sport of snowboarding, bindings are utilized to secure a rider's boot, and hence foot, to the snowboard. A plate binding having adjustable bails is used with a hard shell by snowboard riders whose style is adapted to "carving" or higher speed riding which requires fluid movement from edge-to-edge, thereby "carving" deep into the snow. A soft boot binding includes two, or three straps for securing a soft snowboard boot favored by snowboard riders who "freeride" or perform "freestyle" (trick-oriented) snowboarding. Regardless of the snowboarding styles, there are three basic requirements snowboard riders look for in their binding: performance, comfort and convenience. A binding system should securely attach the boot of the rider to the board, allow the rider to comfortably maneuver the board by weight shifts, twisting and turning of the lower and upper body, and be easy to secure and adjust, especially when inserting and releasing the rider's boot.
Conventional soft boot bindings come in either a two or three strap arrangement comprising an ankle strap, a toe strap and, in the three strap arrangement, a shin strap. The ankle strap may include an oblong strap member which has a first end with a number of holes to adjustably attach the strap to the sidewall of the baseplate by a nut and bolt combination which is received through the appropriate hole adjacent the instep of the boot. The second end of the ankle strap typically includes a ratchet buckle, such as the Slap Ratchet.TM. buckle available from Burton Snowboards of Burlington Vt., which matingly engages a toothed or serrated strap mounted to the sidewall of the baseplate adjacent the outer side of the boot. The Slap Ratchet buckle and serrated strap allow for incremental adjustment once the ankle strap is secured around the boot. Likewise, the toe strap also typically includes an oblong strap member which has a first end with a number of holes to adjustably attach the strap to the sidewall of the baseplate by a nut and bolt combination which is received through the appropriate hole adjacent the "big" toe of the rider. The second end of the toe strap also typically includes a clip, such as a Leverage Toe Clip.TM. available from Burton Snowboards, which mates with a serrated strap mounted to the sidewall of the baseplate adjacent the "little" or "pinkie" toe of the foot for incremental adjustment of the toe strap. The shin strap, when utilized, is typically mounted at a first end to the high-back portion of the binding by a fastener, such as a nut and bolt combination, and includes a ratchet buckle which matingly engages a toothed or serrated strap mounted to the sidewall high-back, adjacent the outer shin. Such soft boot bindings are available from Burton Snowboards, of Burlington, Vt., and include for example, the X2, Custom Freestyle, Freestyle, Freestyle XS, System, Lo-Back and Contact models.
A second type of soft boot binding, available from Flow, is a rear entry, one piece binding strap. This binding utilizes a single, symmetrical strap which encloses substantially the entire top region of the foot between the toe and the ankle area and is typically utilized with a high-back binding system. The one piece strap is attached at the toe and ankle area by a pair of ratchet buckles, each buckle being matingly engaged to a serrated strap.
While prior art soft boot bindings have proven to be effective, there is continued development in the field to provide a varied assortment of bindings which provide the rider with performance, comfort and convenience. The binding described in the present application is directed to one such binding offering performance, comfort and convenience to the rider.